Evaluations & Reviews

This review explores the implications of expansion of the private for profit
health sector for equitable health systems in East and Southern Africa, explores whether there are signs of increasing for-profit private sector activity in the region, and identifies issues of concern on private for profit activity in the health sector. [adapted from summary]

The objective of this review was to assess the effects of lay health worker interventions on childhood immunisation uptake. [from summary]

This review describes the state of health leadership and management capacity in Papua New Guinea. [from summary]

This document summarises findings of a global review whose aim was to identify patterns of success and impact, and outline likely trends in the nature and provision of distance learning for health in low and middle income countries, hence informing future policy, research and investment. [from introduction]

This report reviews the type of HRH-related activities that are eligible for financing within GAVI, the Global Fund, and the World Bank; the HRH-related activities that each agency is actually financing; and the literature to understand the impact that each agency’s investments in HRH have had on HRH in developing countries. [adapted from abstract]

Decision support technology purports to optimize the use of diagnostic tests in clinical practice. The objective of this review was to assess whether computerized clinical decision support systems (CCDSSs) are effective at improving ordering of tests for diagnosis, monitoring of disease, or monitoring of treatment. The outcome of interest was effect on the diagnostic test-ordering behavior of practitioners. [from abstract]

Computerized clinical decision support systems (CCDSSs) may help practitioners meet the requirements of chronic care. These systems analyze a patient’s characteristics to provide tailored recommendations for diagnosis, treatment, patient education, adequate follow-up, and timely monitoring of disease indicators. The objective of this review was to determine if CCDSSs improve the processes of chronic care and associated patient outcomes. [adapted from author]

This article systematically reviewed the evidence on the impact of interventions for seeking, appraising, and applying evidence from systematic reviews in decision making by health policymakers or managers. [from abstract]

This study analyzed the effect of an educational intervention both on the attitudes and motivations of health professionals and on the degree of control over the diabetes for health workers and patients. [adapted from abstract]

This report reviews information systems that report on the quality or performance of providers of healthcare in seven countries to inform the use and further development of quality information systems. [from preface]

The aim of this review was to gain insight into the scientific and professional literature describing the extent to and the ways in which nurse prescribing has been realised or is being introduced in Western European and Anglo-Saxon countries; and to identify possible mechanisms underlying the introduction and organisation of nurse prescribing. [adapted from abstract]

In a Cochrane review on the effects of using lay health workers on maternal and child health and infectious disease control, the authors identified 82 trials that showed promising benefits but whose results were heterogeneous. The objective of this research was to use qualitative studies conducted alongside these trials to explore factors and processes that might have influenced intervention outcomes. [adapted from abstract]

This review focuses on the impact of HRH interventions on health care professionals defined as skilled birth attendants to decrease maternal mortality and morbidity. It derives lessons, gaps and recommendations based on the studies conducted on HRH implementations in developing countries. [adapted from author]

This summary is based on an update of a Cochrane systematic review published in 2010. The summary focuses on the effects of lay health worker interventions in improving maternal and child health and tuberculosis outcomes. [from author]

This literature review examined the published literature on health programs in faith-based organizations to determine the effectiveness of these programs. [from author]

Using an integrated model for the study of healthcare professionals’ behaviour, this study’s objective was to develop a reliable global instrument to assess the impact of accredited continuing professional development activities on clinical practice. [from abstract]

The authors postulate that learning among clinic group members is a particularly important attribute of a primary care clinic that has not yet been well-studied in the health care literature, but may be related to the ability of primary care practices to improve the care they deliver. This article aimes to better understand learning in primary care settings by developing a scale of learning in primary care clinics based on the literature related to learning across disciplines, and to examine the association between scale responses and chronic care model implementation. [from abstract]

This article examines the different methods used in National Health Service (NHS) workforce planning and development. It is designed to help nurse managers select and apply methods for evaluating or estimating their staffing needs and looks at the future for workforce planning and development. [from abstract]

This report focuses on the use of information and communication technologies for health service delivery - telemedicine. It includes an overview of telemedicine, synthesizing current literature that illuminates the use of telemedicine in developing countries, and highlights five key lessons learnt from this body of literature. It also presents the results of the Telemedicine Section of the second global eHealth survey and makes recommendations on actions to establish telemedicine as part of a sustainable solution to the health care issues faced by developing countries.

The Primary Care Evaluation Tool is an instrument developed to examine the supply and demand-side aspects of primary care (PC). It is intended to support ministries of health and other stakeholders in monitoring the progress of their PC-related policies and reforms and to set new priorities on the basis of evidence-based information with the aim of further strengthening PC. This report gives an overview on the findings of the tool in Serbia. [adapted from abstract]

This discussion paper presents a comprehensive approach to the assessment of individual health worker, team and HRH management performance in the context of health system strengthening and the achievement of Millennium Development Goal 5. It provides examples of lessons learned in the planning, implementation and evaluation of HRH interventions in maternal, neonatal and reproductive health at the community level in the Asia and Pacific regions and considerations for enhanced performance in this area. [from introduction]

The HRDI project involves the collaboration of three institutions for the purpose of mobilizing the growing supply of health professionals well-trained in research, first to sustain their professional skills and development and second, to apply their skills to advance health and development in Viet Nam as effectively as possible.This report evaluates the impact of the Health (HRDI) project. [from introduction]

This policy brief describes an overview of systematic reviews of the effects of training, regulatory, financial and organizational mechanisms on the supply, distribution, efficiency and performance of health workers.

This summary of the lengthy “So What?” review is intended to present policymakers and program managers with a clear and accessible picture of what happens when gender concerns are integrated into reproductive health programs. [from introduction]

This study focuses on the implementation and evaluation of the Forecasting Future Workforce Demand Tool. It was hypothesized that implementation of the tool would enable hospitals to enter historical workforce data to create one to five-year forecasts for proactive HHR planning and strategy development. [from summary]

This is an independent evaluation of the six-year Emergency Human Resource Programme, which was designed to address the health crisis in Malawi largely caused by an acute shortage of professional workers in the public health sector. Central to this commitment was the need to improve staffing levels and increase the production of health workers through a coherent package of financial incentives and investments in local health training institutions. [from summary]

This paper describes the promise and limitations of a strategy that uses training workshop to help non-governmental health organizations, governments and businesses to understand public-private sector partnerships in health and to provide them with tools for developing effective collaborations. [from author]

Excitement is rapidly growing concerning the potential for community- based primary health care (CBPHC) to accelerate progress in reducing the tragedy of millions of children dying world-wide each year from readily preventable or treatable conditions. This report summarizes the current research findings concerning the effectiveness of CBPHC in improving the health of children in high-mortality, resource-poor settings. [from summary]

This technical brief describes effective or promising practices that leverage the private health care sector in developing countries, taking advantage of existing infrastructure, financial resources, and expertise to better integrate HIV services and reduce the burden on public health facilities. [from introduction]

The aim of this document is to identify and document promising practices to plan, develop and support national human resources in HIV related strategic information/monitoring and evaluation (M&E). This document adds to recent global M&E system strengthening guidance by compiling examples of promising approaches from a wide range of countries, and is intended for use in the creation of country plans to strengthen the workforce to support a fully functional, national M&E system to ensure strategic information for HIV/AIDS programming. [adapted from summary]